Church serves up lunch and help to homeless
MOSES LAKE — Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church gets a lot of volunteers for its Soup and Sandwich luncheons every Thursday.
Volunteers to cook, serve, and clean. Volunteers to welcome people, to just make them feel a little bit at home.
And that includes a small group of Latter-day Saint missionaries who stand at the ready, each wearing an apron inscribed with an image of the Virgin Mary.
“We should serve others out of the love that’s in our hearts,” said Danica Rose, an LDS missionary in Moses Lake from Utah. “The Savior sat with the homeless, with sinners, and we should do the same thing, help people who are struggling.”
Rose stood with her missionary companion, Rosie Fox, who is here from southern Arizona. Service, along with preaching the Gospel, is part of why they do an 18-month mission.
“We’re all God’s children, and when we help his children, we serve God,” Fox said.
It was not, however, a normal Soup and Sandwich Thursday at Our Lady. It was the fourth Thursday in January, which meant it was time for Project Homeless Connect, which brings a lot of community service agencies and others together to see how they can help those who don’t have a proper place to live.
Suzi Fode, director of New Hope in Moses Lake and organizer of Project Homeless Connect, said the goal of the day is to not only to give anyone who walks in a hot meal, but also connect homeless folks in the area to service that might help them.
So, in addition to the soup and sandwich, and Our Lady’s clothes closet, anyone who came to the Catholic Church on Thursday could hand Handiwipes, hand warmers, referrals for counseling or veterans services, as well as a shower and a haircut.
“The ladies in the kitchen say they normally serve about 100 meals each week, but they are anticipating serving many more today,” Fode said. “And as lot of our vendors here have their supplies depleted.”
“It’s not about the giveaways, though,” Fode added. “It’s really about connection services to people. Everyone deserves a safe place to live that’s free of violence.”
According to Cleo Stevens, who organizes the weekly soup and sandwich lunches at Our Lady, the church has been providing a regular community meal — all are invited — since 2007.
“There’s still not much outreach to the homeless and poor in Moses Lake,” she said. “We had this facility, picked a day of the week, and it’s been Thursday ever since.”
Stevens said the Thursday lunch has become something of a community effort. For example, the Presbyterian Church provided a number of grilled cheese sandwiches that went with Thursday’s soup and cornbread.
“The LDS missionaries have been coming four years now, but the girls just started,” Stevens said. “They’re good, polite and kind and they do a good job.”
Stevens said Our Lady is always looking for volunteers willing to help. And people willing to come and share lunch with someone else.
“It’s open to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, people who don’t want to be alone, it’s open to anyone,” she said.